Foucault on Power and Government Cover Image
  • Price 4.90 €

Foucault on Power and Government
Foucault on Power and Government

Author(s): Paul Patton
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Sociology, Sociology of Politics
Published by: Институт по философия и социология при БАН
Keywords: Power; government; governmentality; relation of force; action upon the actions of others; neoliberalism

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the transformation in Foucault’s conception of power that began in 1976 and concluded with his definition of power as action on the action of others in 1982. His 1976 lectures raise series of questions about the nature of power: what is power? How is it exercised? Is it ultimately a relation of force? Only some of these questions are answered in the course of these lectures. Foucault's answer to the question about the nature of power and the appropriate means to analyze it is not forthcoming until 'The Subject and Power' in 1982. I argue that the new definition of power offered reflects the discovery of governmentality in 1978 and the lectures on liberal and neoliberal governmentality that followed. I conclude with some remarks about the consequences of this new conception of power for Foucault's approach and for his analysis of neoliberal governmental power.

  • Issue Year: 48/2016
  • Issue No: 3-4 EN
  • Page Range: 6-25
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: English